Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Jamaican Halloween Spooktacular 2014 - Track Six - Run If You Are Afraid

Back again I see? Well I've got another tune for you! The sixth track in the 2014 Jamaican Halloween Spooktacular is, as the comic cover suggests, inna rocksteady style! Wrap your ears around "Run If You Are Afraid" by Hopeton Lewis and let the goodness soak in! Unfortunately, Hopeton Lewis died on September 4th of this year and I wanted to pay tribute to a man credited with recording "Take It Easy," one of the rocksteady era's first hits in 1966, but I found my collection to be slightly lacking in any sizable amount of Lewis' music. I have since remedied that injustice and what you're going to hear today is one of those pieces in my now burgeoning Hopeton Lewis collection... a "better late than never" tribute is forthcoming as well but we'll get to that after we turn the page on October. "Run If You Are Afraid" is a previously unreleased rocksteady "rude boy" track that Hopeton Lewis recorded during the latter-half of the 60's and finally made available in June when it was pressed on high quality 7" vinyl by Merritone/Dub Store Records in Japan. I can't say enough about these amazing Dub Store represses and this one works well on so many levels - an unreleased track by a recently lost legend on super-clean, heavy vinyl and a theme that works well with the Spooktacular... what is there not to like?